No, this isn’t a missive from Nigerian scam artist. Next week is School Choice Weekly’s first anniversary, and to celebrate, we’re handing out prizes for readers who forward this email to five friends you think would be interested in a weekly education news roundup from a pro-liberty perspective.

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NORTH CAROLINA: A judge has ruled the state’s new voucher program unconstitutional because private schools are largely unregulated and may provide a poor education. The 2,400 students enrolled in the program may use it for the fall semester, and pro-voucher allies will seek a legal injunction allowing the program to continue past that as the decision is appealed.

TENNESSEE: A report finds vouchers mean more money for public schools, because private schools that accept them charge less than what public schools spend to educate the same child. Typically, school choice opponents insist vouchers take money from public schools.

CURRICULUM CONTROL: Despite Common Core proponents’ insistence that the curriculum mandates don’t mandate curriculum, a CEO for one of the two national Common Core testing groups recently said: “The PARCC states see quality assessments as a part of instruction, not a break from instruction.”

DELAWARE: Zero percent of teachers received an “ineffective” rating this year, and only 1 percent were rated “needs improvement” on a new, test-tied teacher evaluation system. Essentially the same has happened in every state putting out similar results on the Obama administration-required teacher evaluation systems, which occupy principals, teachers, union negotiators, state department of education staff, and school support staff.

MISSISSIPPI: The state’s back-to-school tax holiday is mostly a gimmick that doesn’t save taxpayers much. And the items eligible for no sales taxes for three days seem nonsensical. For instance, swimsuits are eligible. Goggles aren’t. Football jerseys are. Pads and cleats aren’t.

Thank you for reading! If you need a quicker fix of news about school choice, you can find daily updates online under the Ed News Roundup at http://news.heartland.org/education.

And don’t forget to forward this email to five friends, then leave a comment on the blog to be entered for our anniversary prize drawing!